Thursday, November 29, 2012

New Zealand First says news that foreign nationals are buying real estate to fast-track their visa applications makes it imperative for measures to be introduced to stop the practice and make housing more affordable for New Zealanders.

Mr Jan Trotman, bigot of St Marys Bay.

Yes, Asians are buying real estate in Auckland, but pretty much nowhere else. We have the OIA to regulate them buying sensitive land. But I'd love to see a policy that stops them buying standard real estate. It would be a doozy, that's for sure. At the end of the day, Winston Mr Trotman makes the same mistake Labour and the Greens do: He wants to make something cheaper, but hasn't a clue on how to address the real issue - making us wealthier. It's a pathetic, defeatist, state of mind. It's like the England rugby team complaining to the IRB that they can't compete with the All Blacks so the IRB should regulate the ABs to make the playing field level. We need policies that make us like Asians - that is, wealthy and smart. Instead Winston's Mr Trotman's 6% that he panders to with his bigotry are stupid and ignorant.

Emerging evidence also shows that the Auckland property boom, which is forcing Kiwis out of the market, is being fed by Hong Kong and Chinese investors, and Australian retirement funds buying investment properties.

What evidence? Produce it Winston Mr Trotman? You are the first to ask for it when the shoe is on the other foot. The Auckland property "boom" has many factors. The most relevant are lack of supply and cheap money. There is a vast amount of land and housing around, and a few Asians buying what is on the market can only affect it so far. But it also has a positive impact: If Asians buy the property next door to me for $100k more than it's worth, then the value of my property automatically goes up - valuers look at recent sales. That's a good thing for me and for other Kiwis, especially those who own businesses as they can leverage off the increased value to keep their businesses going. It allows homeowners to tack another $10k onto the mortgage and buy a car (keeping the car industry going); or take a holiday (allowing the travel industry to prosper). All in all, it's not such a bad thing, Mr Trotman.

Rt Hon Winston Peters says new policy is being developed to place restrictions on non-residents/non-citizens entering the New Zealand domestic housing market to fast track their visa applications.

“A lack of Government action has created a situation whereby rich people from big foreign economies are pumping up New Zealand property prices, making them too expensive from many Kiwis to afford.

They could afford them if Winston Mr Trotman promoted policies that created wealth rather than promoting making the rich poor by making the poor rich.

“This must be stopped so first home buyers can enter a housing market which represents the domestic economy, not that of countries such as China, Hong Kong, and Australia.”

Ha ha ha. The housing market in China is more overheated than ours; as is Hong Kong. And Australia is pretty much as unaffordable as here.

We would be wealthier, and could afford housing, if deceased mother's estates weren't being pilfered by family members who hang around at the TAB looking for the next Pick 6.

Mr Peters says the Government doesn’t even hold a register of domestic property owned by non-residents/non-citizens.

“That extent of the problem can’t be exactly quantified but it is likely to be huge.

I'm sorry, what was the problem again?

“It isn’t helped by the Government’s failure to have a published long-term immigration strategy.

“This failure is acknowledged in correspondence from Immigration Minister Nathan Guy who also admits that immigration flows are likely to ‘bring challenges of social cohesion’.

Aaahhh. Back to "immigration flows". It only took a few paragraphs to get there.

“A prime example of a lack of social cohesion is Auckland’s property market which is being inflated by foreign nationals as part of their visa application process,” says Mr Peters.

It's bloody painful reading that. If the influx of migrants is creating housing demand, then there is one very simple solution: councils should release more land; and developers should be encouraged to build and build and build. You can't stop people coming to Auckland internally, or to an extent, externally. But you can, as a politician, work hard towards plentiful land supply.

But Winston is too lazy to go there; and there's limited votes in it really. It's more lucrative for him and his party to be bigots.

6 comments:

how does leveraging up against the family home to buy a car or a holiday help NZ? More debt, and no more productivity. consumption based on cheap credit may look great in the GDP numbers but isn't going towards making our country wealthier.

We need policies that make us like Asians - that is, wealthy and smart.

Which Asians? Are you endorsing policies that would see our GDP per capita go as low as China? Indonesia? Vietnam, perhaps? Or are we just looking at places like Singapore and Hong Kong? In which case, you're recommending authoritarian government and a huge increase in income disparity.

For a start @PM government can run a responsible fiscal policy that gets our spending under control. But of course thats something Trotman & co are against because there's no political power in responsibility. Whereas buying votes with voters money - now that's a real winner.

If we get wealthier prices will go up - the market balance cannot be managed for long. Problem not solved.

I heard the other day that Canada changed the rules to limit mortgages to 75% (or something like that) and hat did lower prices by a fair bit. That sounds like the old days here and indicates that easy credit simply increases house prices if there is real market demand. Who would have thought?